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Together

Today when we woke up here in our little house in Michigan my husband had turned 47. Yes, we both have birthdays in the same week. It was his day and that meant we could do whatever he wanted. Well, he wanted to ride but he also wanted me to be able to see a waterfall that we had not gone to earlier in the week. I didn’t think we could get there by ATV trail, but he thought we could. Since the trails did not go that way, I planned us an alternative route that should have taken us right by not 1 but 3 waterfalls. Silly of me to think that things would go according to plan!

We started off heading toward one waterfall and ended up only seeing one waterfall, and not the one that we were heading toward in the first place. I do have to say that we did learn a lesson and had a gas can securely strapped in the back of the RZR this time, hopefully no one would run out of gas. It was a little cool and overcast, but overall not really that bad…well until Rod decided to blow by Spencer in the middle of a muddy stretch, soaking him instantly. That one decision, I feel, set the tone for a large portion of the day.

When we got to the junction where we were supposed to turn to head toward the waterfall we saw that Sterling had a flat. So, we fixed that and took off down a trail we hadn’t been on before. At first it was a good trail, pretty and fast. Then we turned a corner. Oh my! There in front of us was the longest stretch of mud holes that we had seen the entire trip. I am talking one after another after another. And they looked deep. There was no way around them and the only other alternative was to turn around….and there was no way Rod was going to do that. Forward it was. We locked the RZR into 4 wheel drive and took the plunge. And I am not kidding when I say plunge. At one point so much water came into the RZR that the entire area where my feet had been was full of cold water. In fact, so much water came in that it promptly came up over the seat and now my entire rear end was wet, muddy and suddenly very cold. At the other end we stopped, took stock and let out the plugs in the footwells of the RZR and then continued on.

The rest of the trail was pretty good actually and I thought that maybe we were out of the woods, figuratively speaking of course. However, we then crossed the highway and came to a stop in front of a gate and a sign that read, “No wheeled vehicles.” This was a snowmobile trail and the landowner of the land behind the gate did not want ATVs on his land. We had to turn around. I am not sure where the right trail was, but this was not it. Turning around happens to us a lot, usually it is not a huge deal; but usually we do not have to drive through the Mississippi River of mud holes.

It seemed like we came to the mud holes quicker than I would have liked and as we looked for a way around they seemed to be waiting. I knew that we had gotten lucky once, but what were the odds of getting lucky a second time? We took off and again the water came into the RZR, I am glad that I am already wet (at least it is not quite as shocking the second time since my rear end is kind of numb by now.). And then, we were out. Sterling was coming next on his 4 wheeler when it happened. He bottomed out and boom…he was stuck. He did in fact get stuck twice in the same spot. We got him out, but by now all of us were covered in mud from head to toe. Of course I had to get a few shots of the last two mud holes!

After that we were still trying to find those waterfalls. I knew by this time that there was no way we were going to get to the one I had been talking about, but hey we have to get home somehow. We may as well press on. Especially since I was informed by my muddy family that they had gotten into this pickle because they were trying to make sure I got to see a waterfall today. Gotta love them!

We found a trail and headed out. In case I forgot to mention, we had seen these Rally Cars around and knew that they were having a Rally, but we had thought it was more North of us. Well, that shows what we know. We got to a trail head and there was a man closing the trail. Apparently a Rally was going to start in an hour and it was going to be using the trail that we needed. By this time we are a pretty long way from home and now it seems we have to go back. Not the best option because we have used the gas in the gas can and Spencer is getting a bit low. Finally someone else came along and told us if were left RIGHT NOW and headed the way we needed to go it would be okay. So off we went. We saw signs of the rally, but we did manage to stay ahead of them, thank goodness.

By now, it is getting close to sunset, again. We still have miles to go so we beat feet and managed to make it to town just shortly after dark. Well, Spencer is riding a dirt bike, so it has no headlights. We made it into town and there at the gas station sits an officer. Spencer does not see this officer and proceeds to pop a wheelie right in town. Sometimes I think that kids don’t grow into their brains until they get into their 20s or 30s. Now not only is it dark, but I have flashing lights outside my little house. Quite an impression to leave on the neighbors. Luckily the officer only gave Spencer a warning. At the end of the day, my husband had an eventful birthday, and it was one that we spent together as a family. Even the not so great parts were actually pretty great, except for the officer, I could have done without that one. I hope each one of you takes the time to do something together with your family today, because you never know what will happen tomorrow.

By the way, I did end up seeing a pretty great waterfall, but I will talk about that another day since this post got away from me a bit. Have a great day everyone and here are a few shots from today. Talk to you soon.